Nike Event Ends Its Run

October 27, 1993|By BRUCE BERLET; Courant Staff Writer

After a four-year run and several months on a respirator, the Nike Connecticut Open expired Tuesday.

Despite support from the community and potential sponsors, the request of tournament officials to move the $150,000 event from Yale Golf Course in New Haven to Lyman Meadow Golf Club in Middlefield was denied by PGA Tour officials.

Steve Rankin, executive vice president of tournament affairs and sponsor relations for the tour, said in a letter to tournament chairman James Taylor that Lyman Meadow's proximity to the TPC at River Highlands in Cromwell, home of the Canon Greater Hartford Open, precluded a change of venue.

The 1994 GHO is June 23-26, one week after the NCO would have been played.

"We have repeatedly communicated our very serious concerns with Lyman Meadow since July 11 and had hoped to a get a different choice from them," said Dale Antram, executive director of the Nike Tour.

Taylor, who couldn't find another site, criticized tour officials.

"I don't understand their reasoning and I have a bad taste in my mouth about the PGA Tour after the way things were handled," Taylor said. "I thought the tour could have given us a year to prove ourselves."

Taylor donated $50,000 to the Southern Central Chapter of the Connecticut Red Cross, the NCO beneficiary, to keep the event alive this year. That enabled the Red Cross to realize about $45,000 after receiving $63,000 in 1992.

Taylor said he was told he could have control of the tournament because of his donation and has hinted he may pursue legal action.

Taylor said he and tournament director Bob Graham might run another event to raise money for their Connecticut Disadvantaged Foundation in Old Lyme. It could include players such as 1976 GHO winner Rik Massengale and 1981 British Open champion Bill Rogers, two of several inactive former PGA Tour players thinking about coming back on the Senior PGA Tour.

The NCO and New England Classic in Falmouth, Maine, are two of five Nike Tour events being discontinued. The NCO has been replaced by a tournament in Raleigh, N.C